Techniques have been recently developed for capturing an image of a target object with an imaging device and recognize the target object. For example, in a POS (Point Of Sales) terminal device installed at a checkout location (checkout counter) of a supermarket, a mass merchandiser or the like, a technique has been proposed in which an image of a commodity item is captured to obtain image data with a camera or the like embedded in the POS terminal and the commodity item is recognized from the obtained image data using an image recognition technique. In technologies such as robotics, an object recognition system which uses a technique such as a three-dimensional laser measurement technique is employed as a system for a robot or the like to recognize a work piece to be operated.
Further, a technique for measuring the distance to an object has been proposed. For example, PTL 1 discloses a three-dimensional imaging device capable of deriving both distance information and color information by itself and obtaining a stereoscopic color image. The three-dimensional imaging device according to PTL 1 includes distance information deriving device that projects light onto an object to be measured, receives reflected light of the projected light from the object to be measured, and derives information indicating the distance to the object to be measured based on information on the received light, and color information deriving device that receives reflected light based on light other than the projected light from the object to be measured and derives information indicating a color of the object to be measured based on information on the received light.